5 Simple Games for Teaching Number Recognition

These number recognition games are simple, don't require any fancy materials, and my preschoolers love to play them:

1. Grab two dice and a piece of paper with the numbers two
through twelve written on it. Roll the dice, count all the dots, and circle each
number until you've rolled them all.

2. The only things you need for this game are two players, paper, and a pencil, so
it's great when you're waiting somewhere. It's like the rock paper scissors game except we say, "Rock, paper, number!" and each player
holds up as many fingers as they want. Then we count all the fingers and
point to the correct number written on the sheet of paper. (You could also practice writing the number together.)

2. Put simple paper cutouts numbered one through six on the floor. (I cut them into different shapes from different colored paper so we could review shapes and colors at the same time. Plus it's easier to give clues if they're not sure of a number.) To play the game, the child rolls a die, counts the dots, and stands on the corresponding number.

4. This is the same idea as the Valentine math except we've also used ladybug shapes and chocolate chips. My kids would play this fifteen times a day if I'd let them because of the chocolate. Blueberries would work too, if you want a healthier option.

5. Labeling. I write numbers on office stickers and we label things around the house. For example, we put "12" on the dozen eggs in the refrigerator, "2" on a pair of shoes, etc.

You might like these other counting and number recognition activities too:

I am doing a math night for the parents at my preschool and would love to give them a copy of these activities. Would you mind if I printed them to hand out? I will make sure there is a link to your website on the page.

My daycare children are BIG ice cream lovers, so I think I'm going to try out the ice cream math. Thanks for the tasty idea. We might try the ladybug math with raisins. It's great, we're combining learning and snack time together!

This is such a great post, with some wonderful ideas!! Thank you for this, and thanks for sharing it at For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars! I am featuring YOU at the next party, and have pinned this post to my BEST OF board on Pinterest!

Some lovely ideas here - we have a special focus this week on maths and number posts at the Empty Your Archive link party, and I would absolutely love for you to link this up, Alice @ Mums Make Lists x